Gillan

After the break-up of his previous band, Ian Gillan Band, Ian Gillan brought together new musicians: guitarist Steve Byrd, bassist John McCoy, keyboardist Colin Towns (the only survivor along with Ian Gillan himself of the Ian Gillan Band experience) and drummer Liam Genockey (like McCoy and Byrd, a former member of Zzebra, a jazz-rock and afro-prog band that existed from 1974 to 1978). He formed a new band, simply called "Gillan", and abandoned the experimental ambitions of the Ian Gillan Band in favour of a hard rock more in tune with the trends of the time.